Matt Serra On Ultimate Fighting!

UFC champion Matt Serra talks to Men's Health about Ultimate Fighting, the skills he uses to win, and the training program that keeps him on top.

Jun 14, 2007

Matt Serra's first schoolyard fights taught him an important lesson about man-to-man combat: the real battle happens on the ground.

"When I was younger and I'd get into scraps, someone would throw a punch, but next thing you know it's on the ground," he says. "The [kung fu] I did when I was younger didn't roll over too well to actual combat."

Serra's fights haven't changed much. He currently holds the welterweight title in boxing, wrestling, and everything in between.

On Saturday night, the red-hot UFC has another big fight card. Among the bouts will be middleweights Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami and light heavyweights Forrest Griffin and Hector Ramirez.

Ultimate fighters call themselves "mixed martial artists." Serra, 33, is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt trained by Renzo Gracie, a member of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's royal family. "In high school I saw a tape of the Gracies and knew I had to learn how to do that," Serra explains.

He considers Jiu-Jitsu the best "pure fighting art." In mixed martial arts, fighters do whatever they want -- as long as they follow the basic rules of no eye gouging, groin strikes or head butts.

A fighter with strong wrestling skills may try to take the fight to the ground but a strong striker will try to stay standing or adopt a hybrid style such as "ground 'n' pound," which entails punching from an upper position on the mat.

UFC fans think the sport is the true "sweet science," and that the mixing of styles accounts for its popularity -- and say that’s why boxing is fading.

Lest the hype blind us too much, the May 2007 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya drew twice the pay-per-view dollars of UFC's largest total to date, though MMA is quickly gaining ground.

One thing he'd like to tell the legions of UFC fans harboring fantasies of competing: "Everybody wants to be an ultimate fighter till they get hit."

Serra is currently taping The Ultimate Fighter 6, a popular reality show on Spike TV.

On the show, which airs this fall, Serra coaches a team of welterweight fighters through a tournament against a rival team led by Matt Hughes. At the conclusion of the season, Hughes and Serra will fight for the UFC welterweight title.

"It's gonna be a crazy season," Serra says. "You've got guys that pretend they don't like each other and they want to fight each other [outside the ring]. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I think Hughes is a stuck-up jerk and I don't like the way he talks down to people."

But Serra says he respects Hughes' ability, and expects to be the underdog despite holding the title. "No matter what happens I'm gonna be so happy this entire season," he says, "because I'm gonna know that at the end of it, I get to hit him in the face."

Serra says he'll be the underdog because no one expected him to be where he is now, atop the division.

He won the belt when he TKO'd the prodigy Georges St. Pierre in the first round.

"In this game, experience counts a lot," he says. "I beat St. Pierre, who's a physical specimen, a better wrestler, and supposedly a better striker. People thought I was gonna get killed. But I have experience in wars with the best guys in the world. I knew at the very least he'd be in the hospital with me."

Experience does seem to help: Former UFC champion Chuck Lidell held the belt at age 37 and five-time champion Randy Couture won his heavyweight title back at age 43 from a 30-year-old Tim Silvia in March 2007.

His workout consists of a mix of kettlebell work, plyometrics, calisthenics, interval training, and bodyweight exercises such as pull-ups and push-ups. But no heavy weights.

"I don't like feeling too tight," he says, "Like if you bench too much, you feel like you can't move your arms right."

To stay limber he mixes in sessions of Bikram yoga, a discipline that puts participants in a sauna-like room to loosen muscles while holding difficult poses.

Serra also continues to study Jiu-Jitsu, which he recommends to anyone looking to stay in shape. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools are popping up all over the country, he says, catering to aspiring MMA fighters as well as lay people looking for self-defense or alternative fitness regimes.

Serra runs two schools on Long Island, NY with his brother Nick. Classes at his school start out with 5 to 10 minutes of warmup followed by instruction in submission and escape technique, drills and a hefty dose of sparring.

"They lose weight because they're having fun doing something physical," Serra explains. "If a guy wants to lose weight he should join up. The before-and-after pictures on these guys are unbelievable. I've got more success stories than Jared and Subway."

To find a Jiu-Jitsu school near you, visit bjj.org or check out Serra's schools at serrajitsu.com.

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